Specifics on Willis overdue

Wednesday

Feb 6, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Clive McFarlane

Many in our local community are still pained by the disrespect, the lack of transparency and the dictatorial attitude that they believe the state has shown to those who dare to ask why it de-funded the Henry Lee Willis Community Center.

Sure, community members have heard repeatedly the state’s vague reference to “serious concerns over financial management and client care issues.”

But what exactly does this mean, many asked at Monday’s Public Health and Human Services Committee meeting, at which the issue received a public hearing, and the state a public rebuke.

“Tons of agencies have had problems with bookkeeping,” Grace Ross pointed out, for example.

“We have seen agencies which have not dotted all their i’s and their t’s and they were not de-funded. We have lots of other tools ... besides de-funding, such as receivership.”

The Rev. José Encarcion noted that in the letter announcing its decision to cut off funding to the Willis Center, the state said it was making the decision without cause.

The “two vague reasons” which the state is giving now were not mentioned in that letter, he said.

“It doesn’t add up,” he said.

“Somehow, some form of accountability has to happen. We have to dig deep. Something wrong has happened here. An extreme injustice has happened.”

The Rev. Clyde Talley, the pastor of Belmont A.M.E. Zion Church, said, “Even if the state’s decision was justified, there was a right way to do it.” He does not believe, he said, that the state gave much thought to the impact closing the agency would have, given its unique role in the community.

Beyond its primary social service functions, the Willis Center was keen on building the community, evidenced by its sponsorship and fundraising support for Juneteenth, an annual celebration of African American culture with music, dance, crafts and food, Rev. Talley said.

He wondered why alternatives to shutting down the Willis Center were not considered. He wondered why the state could not have done something else to “make it a little easier on our community.”

“It shows a total lack of respect for the community,” he said.

While the state is the focus of much of the community’s angst, some, including myself, wonder why Carlton Watson, the executive director of the Willis Center, along with the agency’s board of directors, did not do anything to galvanize the community to its defense.

Henry Ritter, chairman of the agency’s board of directors, said he and his colleagues do not know much more than what the community knows.

Although the agency was experiencing some financial challenges, he thought that “we had turned the corner.”

While the board did not reach out to city councilors, they did reach out to various individuals at the state level.

In each case, board members were led to believe that there was nothing these individuals could do to help them, he said.

“At that point we felt the priority was to take care of the business at hand, to transition the best we can,” Mr. Ritter said.

It is difficult to believe the state has not given Mr. Ritter a better reason for de-funding the Willis Center than what it has offered the public, and even at this late date, the state seems to be making things up as it goes.

It is now telling us, for example, that it has turned over matters to “law enforcement,” and that it cannot say anything else as result of “any potential investigation that might result from this referral.”

But increasingly this is looking more like a bookkeeping move by the state, one that has less to do with financial management concerns and client care, and more to do with state funding priorities, which, as we can clearly see, do not include the concerns being raised by this community.